'Arrow' recap: China White strikes in 'Honor Thy Father'

The pilot for Arrow may have broken records for The CW - pulling in an incredible 4 million viewers - but it left us rather cold. We're glad we didn't give up on the show there and then though - episode two 'Honor Thy Father', while far from perfect, is a definite improvement.

One of the positive elements we picked out last week was Stephen Amell's central performance and he remains an impressive lead, creating a clear character divide between the smug Oliver Queen and his gravel-voiced alter-ego. Arrow also features a healthy amount of impressively-staged, often brutal action, but continues to suffer from cornball dialog - "God, no!" a villain begs. "He can't help you!" Ollie growls back.

'Honor Thy Father' explores the ramifications of Queen's miraculous survival - he has to attend court to get "legally resurrected", which stirs up difficult memories of his time spent on the island, plus the death of Robert Queen...

Court-side, he just *happens* to run into Laurel (Katie Cassidy), who still hates-but-obviously-really-loves him. This week, she's busy crusading against the unscrupulous Martin Somers, played by Ty Olsson, also currently appearing on Arrow's CW stablemate Supernatural as Benny the vampire...

Oliver's attempts to put an end to Somers's empire, built on drug-smuggling and murder, is hampered by the fact that he's still being flanked by kick-ass bodyguard John Diggle (David Ramsey) - who either has no memory of Ollie assaulting him last episode or just doesn't bear a grudge.

But Diggle's relationship with Queen turns out to be - so far - by far the show's most interesting, as the war veteran is the one man who can appreciate Oliver's trauma and begins to take note of his new skills. We hope he's sticking around - if nothing else, Ollie having a confidant means Arrow can ditch those dodgy voice-overs.

Diggle's continued presence is at the request of Oliver's mother Moira - the hammy, wild-eyed Susanna Thompson - who's busy making a big song-and-dance about keeping her son safe, while simultaneously plotting against him. We're not entirely sure what her game is and we're rapidly losing interest in finding out...

Moira's scenes are possibly the show's least interesting, rivalled only by anything involving the tiresome love triangle between Ollie, Laurel and smarmy Tommy Merlyn. Those brief glimpses we get of Ollie's desperation on the island? Far more compelling than anything going on in Starling City right now.

Elsewhere this week, Paul Blackthorne continues to impress as crusading cop Quentin Lance - Arrow's equivalent of The Incredible Hulk's Jack McGee - while The OC's Willa Holland is also great. You get the feeling she could play this sort of rebellious-teen-with-a-heart in her sleep.

After a tongue-lashing from said sister, Ollie decides to counter his recent distant behavior and tries to reach out to Laurel - turns out a tub of ice cream can melt a girl's heart, even if you did cheat on her with her sister, who ended up dead...

But just as the ice cream - and the pair's relationship - starts to defrost, the cosy scene is interrupted by saucy Triad villainess China White, played with a cartoonish flourish by Kelly Hu - the Hawaii Five-0 actress is underused here, getting no more than a few minutes of screen-time, but we suspect there's more China to come...

The episode wraps as Oliver - faced with a personal crisis - decides to embark on the Batman route once again and act like a spoiled jackass in public, in order to keep his life as a costumed avenger a secret. We then end on a very interesting twist - is the archer who shot Ollie a real figure, someone he learnt his skills from? Or is that scene intended as a metaphor - the old Ollie 'dying' to be replace by the heroic Arrow?

With some genuinely exciting and intriguing moments, the second episode of Arrow shoots ahead of the pilot. With a few tweaks, this show has the potential to become solid popcorn entertainment. As it is, the cheese factor remains just a little too high.

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